We are fortunate in our school to have a spare classroom this year, so we decided to create a week-long pop up Prayer Space for each class to visit over the week. We emptied the classroom of chairs and desks, and transformed it into a peaceful, inviting and creative space. We wanted to explore the theme of prayer through creative play-based learning so that it was accessible to different aged children from any background. To do this we set up four different areas in the room:

• What is prayer? 
• Why do we pray? 
• Who do we pray for? 
• How can we pray? 

Each area had three activities to engage children with the question, and each activity was linked to a bible verse. We had lots of volunteers from our school-link church come to run the activities for us, and they did a superb job talking to the children and making the most of each activity. 

At the end of each class session, children were asked to record their reflection on visiting Prayer Space. Some of the comments are captured here:

Following on from Prayer Space 23, to set up a permanent area in school. We didn’t know how mini prayer space would be used, or indeed whether it would be used, but within days children started to visit of their own accord to write prayers during breaktimes and lunchtimes. By the end of the week, we suddenly realized that we needed to add more pebbles as the bowl was empty. It was lovely, surprising and a very humble feeling that children were choosing to pray and express something in themselves. 

Mini prayer space has since evolved to include a reflection space for Remembrance Day and Advent. The local curate came into school to work with children to create the Advent prayer space, and these children then led a collective worship to explain the new prayer activities to the school. Writing prayers has become popular at school and children still regularly visit the space. We have many ideas for next term and the future ahead.